Seattle Sports: In the Morning

Three big stories this morning: Bill Bavasi basically says the M's will trade for Eric Bedard, the Dawgs get a huge road win, and state funding for a new Husky stadium won't happen.

First, the Bedard thing. Here's what Bavasi said in a press conference, as reported by Geoff Baker of the Times: "We're at the point now where we have to do our best to make those moves for a top-of-the-rotation guy, so we can slot the rest of the rotation where it should be. For us right now, the most important thing is the top-of-the-rotation starting pitcher. Not just a No. 2, 3 or 4 guy. A No. 1 guy. We're prepared to move ... as I'm sitting here today, I think we will [get a deal done]. I think there's a good chance of that."

It's an interesting thing for Bavasi to say. Because now, if he doesn't make a deal, is the season toast? What message does this send to Baltimore's front office?

Next, a huge win for the Huskies, 72-61 at #24 Arizona State. Everyone's talking about Romar's first-half tantrum, when he fired a clipboard down during a timeout and it bounced onto the floor. Apples told Dan Raley: "He didn't swear. He was pretty stern in a nice, mean way."

Brockman had a monster game: 21 pts. and 16 boards. Romar singled out Artem Wallace for helping to shut down Jeff Pendergraph, who shot 3-10. Super frosh James Harden played for ASU, and scored 17, but only 4 in the second half.

Tim Morris told Bob Condotta: "We had a little bit more mental toughness. Some pride. We kind of turned up the competitive spirit a little bit. I don't know if it's maturity or what, but it is definitely a big difference from last year."

State house speaker Frank Chopp, who was the main obstacle to getting funding for the Sonics arena, is also saying no to the Huskies. He told Chris McGann of the P-I that granting $150 million to UW to upgrade Husky Stadium isn't going to happen this legislative sesson. The Senate majority leader, Lisa Brown, says "should athletics take priority over academics. ... It raises a question for me about priorities." When politicians start playing the "priorities" card about sports, that means you can forget about funding. Sports is never a "priority" though I'm not entirely sure why not.

Art Thiel suggests there out to be some sort of sports taxing authority to divvy up money between the M's (who'll probably be asking for repairs on Safeco soon, the Huskies, etc). If not, we'll have quotes like he gets from ex-Gov Dan Evans re: a battle for Husky Stadium funding: "If somebody says they want a piece of this, I'll go up against anybody. I'll guarantee we can knock down anyone's arguments over need and urgency."